Sunday, July 01, 2007

WARNINGS

Al-Hesbah is the internet chat forum on which a message proclaiming an attack on London was posted just hours before the cars in the centre of London were found.

So what is "the beef" on Al-Hesbah?

It is a popular Jihadist website, and messages from al-Qaeda are posted on it. So this site should be monitored every second of every day. So to say there was no warning or intelligence on the plot is not true.

But get this: it is actually accused of being a front for Western Intelligence agencies!

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From http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=7799

Often the virtual battle is among various terrorist websites, representing different groups affiliated with the same movement. The Al-Tajdeed site (www.tajdeed.org.uk), operated by the Saudi Islamist opposition in London, launched such a struggle against www.alhesbah.org, a leading Islamist site that often posts messages from Al Qaeda. Al-Tajdeed accused Al-Hesbah of serving Arab and Western intelligence agencies, as well as exposing the founders of the famous Al-Ansar website (www.al-ansar.org), including the operator known as "Irhabi 007" and other members of the Global Islamic Media Front. On March 5, 2006, Al-Tajdeed published an article signed by "Omar bin Hanif," titled "A Series of Exposures of Spies - [Who Is] the Traitor who Sold Irhabi 007?"


After Al-Hesbah went offline, Al-Tajdeed attempted to attract Jihadists who had used Al-Hesbah by promoting alternative websites such as Al-Akhbar and Al-Alamiyya. However, on April 4, 2006, Al Qaeda posted a communiqué on several forums rejecting the accusations against Al-Hesbah for the arrest of Al Qaeda members and Irhabi 007: “we stress that these allegations are false. Everything we know about our brothers in Al-Hesbah is good – and even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that [the website] had been infiltrated, [we assure you that] … the fall of the brothers had nothing to do with the Internet.” Al-Tajeed responded immediately, arguing that the communiqué was fake, an attempt by Arab-Zionist intelligence apparatuses to maintain “the Al-Hesbah espionage site.” The site reappeared April 14, 2006, with a statement blaming the attacks for the website’s month-long absence and noting that precautions had since been taken.

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Whether this allegation is true or not, Al-Hesbah appears to be an important channel of communication for al-Qaeda.

Now assuming that (a) al-Qaeda is real, and (b) our governments really, really, really want to stop terrorist attacks so that (c) MI5 are constantly monitoring al-Qaeda chat forums, when MI5 see a message on a trusted al-Qaeda mouthpiece that London is going to be bombed today what should have happened? Were the correct and agreed procedures followed? For example, were analysts awakened from their sleep to help analyse traffic and CCTV footage? Was there a squad of Special Branch immediately sent around to the address of the poster?

Wouldn't it be absolutely ubelievable if, as is alleged, al-Hesbah is a front for Western Intelligence?

To add to this hint of LIHOP, it is also being reported that the USA received warnings of an attack on Glasgow airport two weeks ago. The warnings were taken seriously enough to place marshalls on flights into and out of Glasgow Airport. However, the warnings were apparently not passed on "for operational reasons"!

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From http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/us-warned-of-gl.html

U.S. law enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago warning of a possible terror attack in Glasgow against "airport infrastructure or aircraft," a senior US law enforcement official tells the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The intelligence reports also warned that airports and aircraft in the Czech Republic could be the targets of al Qaeda-connected terrorists.

The warnings were kept secret for operational reasons, according to officials. In public, the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have continued to maintain they know of no specific or credible threats involving the United States, even though the intelligence reports specify US aircraft as possible targets.

A US official told ABCNews.com that the intelligence reports led to the assignment of Federal Air Marshals to flights into and out of both Glasgow and Prague.

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So when two cars laden with fuel and nails almost exploded in London on the first full day of a brand new British cabinet, was this and other credible intelligence then passed on?

There is something very fishy about all this.

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